| Good morning. |
| My name's Erica Matthews, |
| and I'm the owner of Matthews Island Holidays, |
| a company set up by my parents. |
| Thank you for coming to this presentation, |
| in which I hope to interest you in what we have to offer. |
| We're a small, family-run company, |
| and we believe in the importance of the personal touch, |
| so we don't aim to compete with other companies on the number of customers. |
| What we do is build on our many years' experience - |
| more than almost any other rail holiday company - |
| to ensure we provide perfect holidays in a small number of destinations, |
| which we've got to know extremely well. |
| I'll start with our six-day Isle of Man holiday. |
| This is a fascinating island in the Irish Sea, |
| with Wales to the south, England to the east, |
| Scotland to the north and Northern Ireland to the west. |
| Our holiday starts in Heysham, |
| where your tour manager will meet you, |
| then you'll travel by ferry to the Isle of Man. |
| Some people prefer to fly from Luton instead, |
| and another popular option is to go by train to Liverpool and take a ferry from there. |
| You have five nights in the hotel, |
| and the price covers five breakfasts and dinners, |
| and lunch on the three days when there are organised trips: |
| day four is free, |
| and most people have lunch in a café or restaurant in Douglas. |
| The price of the holiday includes the ferry to the Isle of Man, |
| all travel on the island, the hotel, and the meals I've mentioned. |
| Incidentally, we try to make booking our holidays as simple and fair as possible, |
| so unlike with many companies, |
| the price is the same whether you book six months in advance |
| or at the last minute, |
| and there's no supplement for single rooms in hotels. |
| If you make a booking then need to change the start date, |
| for example because of illness, |
| you're welcome to change to an alternative date or a different tour, |
| for a small administrative fee. |
| OK, so what does the holiday consist of? |
| Well, on day one |
| you'll arrive in time for a short introduction by your tour manager, |
| followed by dinner in the hotel. |
| The dining room looks out at the river, |
| close to where it flows into the harbour, |
| and there's usually plenty of activity going on. |
| On day two you'll take the coach to the small town of Peel, |
| on the way calling in at the Tynwald Exhibition. |
| The Isle of Man isn't part of the United Kingdom, |
| and it has its own parliament, called Tynwald. |
| It's claimed that this is the world's oldest parliament that's still functioning, |
| and that it dates back to 979. |
| However, the earliest surviving reference to it is from 1422, |
| so perhaps it isn't quite as old as it claims! |
| Day three we have a trip to the mountain Snaefell. |
| This begins with a leisurely ride along the promenade in Douglas in a horse-drawn tram. |
| Then you board an electric train which takes you to the fishing village of Laxey. |
| From there it's an eight-kilometre ride in the Snaefell Mountain Railway to the top. |
| Lunch will be in the café, giving you spectacular views of the island. |
| Day four is free for you to explore, using the pass which we'll give you. |
| So you won't have to pay for travel on local transport, |
| or for entrance to the island's heritage sites. |
| Or you might just want to take it easy in Douglas and perhaps do a little light shopping. |
| The last full day, day five, is for some people the highlight of the holiday, |
| with a ride on the steam railway, from Douglas to Port Erin. |
| After some time to explore, |
| a coach will take you to the headland that overlooks the Calf of Man, |
| a small island just off the coast. |
| From there you continue to Castletown, |
| which used to be the capital of the Isle of Man, and its mediaeval castle. |
| And on day six it's back to the ferry - |
| or the airport, if you flew to the island - and time to go home. |
| Now I'd like to tell you... |